Online
Exhibition
Online Exhibition
Edo in Colour
Prints from Japan’s Metropolis
Open online
As the Chester Beatty continues to follow Irish Government guidelines, the opening of this exhibition will be necessarily delayed. Until then, please enjoy our online exhibition below.
Newly published perspective view: Enjoying cool evening at Edo’s Ryōgoku bridge
Kitagawa Utamaro II
Japan, 1806-1818
CBL J 2522
Featuring one hundred prints and printed books from the Chester Beatty’s renowned collections of Japanese art, Edo in Colour explores how woodblock prints shaped a city’s identity as they crafted its image.
Actors Bandō Mitsugorō I as Hanbei and Yamashita Kinsaku as Ochiyo
Ippitsusai Bunchō
Japan, 1770
CBL J 2464
New year’s dream from Prosperous flowers of the elegant twelve months
Isoda Koryūsai
Japan, c. 1773
CBL J 2459
Dry goods store Ebisuya
Utagawa Toyokuni
Japan, 1793-1797
CBL J 2571
Visiting the Yoshiwara from Modern sparrows of Edo
Utagawa Kunisada
Japan, 1836-1838
CBL J 2596
Bursting into life as capital of Japan’s ruling shogunate, by the mid-18th century the population of Edo (modern Tokyo) had grown to over one million.
From buskers and teahouse beauties to actors, entertainers, prostitutes and star-crossed lovers, the people of downtown Edo became celebrities of this new metropolis, their image captured in vibrant woodblock prints.
Woodblock prints were an affordable art, printed by the thousand and consumed as fast as fashion demanded. They are also aesthetically rich and technically accomplished. As illustrious artists and shrewd publishers battled for market share, they constructed the city anew on paper.
Presented with the support of the Japan Foundation and Toshiba International Foundation
Chester Beatty is a charity and your donations help make our work possible.
